conflict, and which cause a conviction to be looked upon as a
political defeat, and an acquittal to be regarded as a party
triumph--all these circumstances, in their combined and concentrated
force, must also be take into consideration. In such a case every step
is fought with stern and dogged resolution; even mere delay is
valuable, for when all other hope is gone, the chapter of accidents
_may_ befriend the accused; it is one chance more; and even one
chance, however slight, is not to be thrown away. Such is a faint
picture of the defensive operations on such occasions: how is this
untiring, bitter energy met by those who represent the crown?

"Look on this picture and on that."

Here all is calm, dignified, generous, and forbearing; every
consideration is shown, every indulgence is granted, to the
unfortunate being who is in jeopardy. The crown has no interest to
serve beyond that which the state possesses in the vindication of the
law, and in that cool, deliberate, and impartial administration of
justice which has so long distinguished this country. Nothing is
unduly pressed against the prisoner, but every extenuating fact is
fairly laid before the jury by the crown; it is, in short, generosity,
candor, and forbearance, on the one side, matched against craft,
cunning and the resolution _by any means_ to win, upon the other. Such
are the real difficulties which may be often felt by those who conduct
a state prosecution. Surely it is better far that these difficulties
should, in some instances, be even wholly insuperable, and that the
prosecution should be defeated, than that any change should come over
the spirit in which these trials are now conducted; or that the crown
should ever even attempt to make the criminal process of the law an
instrument of tyranny and oppression, as it was in the days of Scroggs